3.5 stars

'The Boyband Murder Mystery' was such an enjoyable read. This book focuses on fandom and how friendships can be made because of a shared love of a boyband and I loved that so much.

I really enjoyed reading this book, I found all the characters so likeable and realistic. I loved the friendship between Harri and Jas and how we get to see them meeting in person for the first time, watching their friendship blossom outside of just the fandom and even watching them fight with each other. I just loved how realistic their friendship was and how it wasn't showed to be perfect all the time.

I really liked Harri as a main character. I liked seeing her growing and changing throughout the book and learning how to become herself outside of the fandom that she relied so heavily on growing up.

The murder mystery wasn't the best I have ever read but it was a lot of fun trying to guess who actually killed Evan and the plot twist/murderer made a lot of sense when it was revealed.

I love reading books about fandom and fame, and I loved that this one was a lot different from any book I have ever read before. I liked that this book had a murder mystery element and asked the question 'how far would you go for the boyband you love?'.

Definitely check this book out, especially if you love murder mystery books, books about fandom and especially books about the importance of friendship.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Children's UK for providing me with an advance copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Harriet and her friends are super-fans of the boyband Half Light, they know everything about them. So when Frankie is accused of Murder Harriet knows he did not do and sets out to prove it.

As she looks onto the murder Harriet finds out that, as fans they did not know everything about the boys, and starts to question what she knows.

I really enjoyed the book and the character of Harriet, however I found that quite a large proportion of the book was focused on Harriet and her relationship with her friends rather than the actual mystery. I think that this gave background to Harriet character but could have been cut down and more time spent on the murder of Frankie's best friend.

Due to the focus on Harriet I found that the end felt a little rushed, how the case was solved could have been explored more.

Lots of good fun, in this incredibly modern book. I loved this, it made me feel young and remember how exciting it was to be into a band and everything about them. The main characters are likeable and believable. I must add that the romantic subplot is a little unneccesary, but it's a book for young adults, and what YA book doesn't have a love interest?! Perfect for fans of pop music, YA novels and crime!

Having been a fan of several boybands over the years, I enjoyed reading this novel about fans of “Half Light” trying to solve a murder in order to clear the singer’s name.

The characters were, on the whole, likeable and my younger self could relate to them. The story focused on the girls using their own different skills and their knowledge of the band to try to solve the murder. Their attention to detail when it came to the band was phenomenal, picking up on things only fans would notice, making them ideal to investigate.

Some of the things they got up to were a bit “out there” but it was an enjoyable story looking at fans’ obsessions, online connections, and, above all, the importance of female friendships.

Thanks to Netgalley and Publisher for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

You all know I started reading Mysteries/Thrillers last year and after that, I didn't stop. I am a sucker of YA mysteries. When I saw this I had to read it and fortunately, Netgalley approved it.

I started this book with high expectation, although I am a fangirl of fictional characters I thought It won't make a difference. But I was wrong, I struggled hard to get connected to any of the characters, I couldn't feel the spark or relation between fans and the boys, and I am sure it was the writing and character development that didn't let me connected to the book. Harri is so unlikeable character and narrator, She is selfish, immature and has a superiority complex. She made it so hard to enjoy the book.

Another big problem was that I couldn't find the mystery. This book more focused on Harri and her misbehaviours than the so-called mystery. The plot was bland and didn't succeed in getting my attention because there was nothing to enjoy.

Stef/Steph and Harri relationship were half-baked and it was totally filler part of the story.

In short, It wasn't a mystery, it was a story of a self-obsessed girl who is trying to prove her superiority to people.

Before I begin, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rating - 2.5 stars.

I always feel bad being critical of a book someone has spent time and effort writing but I think this one warrants useful feedback of a kind. It has good bones but the meat of it is where it goes wrong for me.

I chose this book because I know where it's coming from. Boyband Fandom? I was adjacent to one for most of my teenage years (McFly were my LADS and whilst I was mostly very tame, some of what this book is hinged on, I can see myself and my friends getting up to at that age) and it was a wonderful time of my life. Obsessive, maybe, but I always justified it because you do. Plus, I find treading into people's personal lives, when they are giving you so much of a public life is ick territory so I always felt I was okay because I had my own line.

Then One Direction turned up on the scene and I got to see what true obsessive boyband fandoms were like (from afar because ugh) and I was so grateful I had never been *that* kid (for my own mental health).

So I read the Boyband Murder Mystery and it was solidly in that ick territory that I mentioned. It has no line. It's like reading a fictional version of what would have happened if fans could have written the narrative for One Direction, plus a murder, and why that actually isn't okay.

I appreciate what Ava Eldred is doing and I do believe she loves fandom. I do believe that she thinks what she's done is an homage to fans that stand in the wings of famous bands but to me, it's too much. It takes that careful line I was upheld - personal and public are two different things and I only have a right to one of these lives - and smashes it up, like that's okay. Which is isn't. Especially in a narrative where I think some of this is pretty illegal, or at least VERY GREY AREA stuff.

Harri is also awful. I'm sorry, she's just. I'm speechless. Her understanding of boundaries is clearly flawed but she just opens her mouth and at NO POINT, does her brain stop her. She's lucky to have friends by the end, quite honestly. Her family also come round for reasons I don't understand because she's not nice to them either. The shoehorned 'romance' is also.. unnecessary? It's either a murder mystery around a boy band or a girl going to university story, not both. It does not need to be.

I wish it was better. I do. I think Ms Eldred has such a strong concept but she loses her way in dubious behaviour and abhorrent characters.

But I'll tell you what I did learn from this, and rather liked - she wants to highlight what we learnt from our obsessions as a teenager, our fandoms and our lives lived online and that, I can relate to. Clearly! I made my close friends at high school by finding my tribe that loved pop music and boy bands like me. I also very much established my code of morals and ethics from my tiptoe into fandom and they are too strongly embedded to be broken by this book.

I think she will get it right next book. But not this one. Not if you were like me.

To say I am disappointed is an understatement. Mystery is my all time favourite genre, I have been reading mysteries for my whole life. I distinctly remember being in elementary school and already reading Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple novels. Lately, I have been getting a lot into YA contemporary mysteries and this book sounded just perfect. Moreover, I Was Born for This is one of my all time favs and - reading the synopsis of The Boyband Murder Mystery - I felt like this book was going to be like that, but with a murder mystery twist.
I had two main issues with the book: the mystery - or lack thereof - and the main character. Let's start from the latter: Harri is a selfish brat. There's no kind way to put it. I understand being a die hard fan of a band (I had my One Direction phase in middle school, so), but there's a limit. You cannot forget to be a decent human being because you love a random band so much. Furthermore, she read like a twelve-years-old, and she is supposed to be like eighteen. One would think that by then you have learned how to balance your passion with your real life. I mean, Harri *clearly* has some problems (aside from her anxiety, which I could relate to), in the sense that her attachment to Half-Light resents unhealthy obsession. I was discussing this book with a friend and we agreed that "traditional" addictions like alcool and drugs are taken way more seriously than Harri's kind of obsession. We both felt like the author didn't do a good job at underlining how unhealthy Harri's relationship with the band was.
The other characters were at least decent (except for Frankie, who is an arsehole, I'm sorry), but none of them won my heart over. I am such a character driven reader, so it was a bit sad not to like any of them.
Since I mentioned Frankie, I wanna add that I didn't like the choice the author made for the 'mystery' plot's sake. I cannot say specifically what I am talking about, but what he did to the people he is close to is not nice. I don't care what reasons you have, you do not play with people lives and feelings like that. Said like this, it doesn't sound that bad, but from a queer reader perspective, it was awful. And while we are at it, the discussion about being a lesbian that Harri and Jas have was hurtful, in my opinion. I really hope it gets edited before pub day.
Now, onto the mystery. Well, there wasn't much of one. You cannot title a book 'The Boyband Murder Mystery' and then have a teen drama with a side of mystery. For the first half of the book, we know exactly *nothing* about the mystery, we only know someone has died. Then we are given this piece of information which is at the first and only clue (this is related to what made me mad, but again, I cannot say). From this point onwards, it's just Harri who accuses random people with no solid evidence, entirely missing the obvious culprit. I mean, if you haven't ever read a mystery, this might shock you, but it was so damn clear who had done it.
And if all this wasn't enough, I also did not like the writing style, but this is probably linked to my hatred for the main character.
I know this was a debut, but so were many many mysteries I have read and they were at least engaging. I am so sorry I didn't like this book, but it was really boring and I couldn't get myself to finish it. And when I did, I was just disappointed. So yeah, not for me.

This book was so well written. Everybody at some point in their lives has thrown themselves into loving a band or a book or a film so i found this so relatable.

This book showed how being part of a fandom can create so much power. It shows how being [art of a fandom can bring people together from all walks of life and create life long friendships.

I loved the female friendships in this book. They all had eachothers backs and it was a wonderful thing to read!!

This is a book i will be recommending to friends.

This book follows Harri, who is a huge fan of the band Half Light. After one of the members is arrested on suspicion of murder, her and her other fandom friends decide to try and prove his innocence, using their love and knowledge of their favourite band.

I knew that I would enjoy this one because I am also a band fangirl, so I was instantly intrigued by the premise, which definitely made me think about what I would do in Harri’s situation. Harri’s love for the band is so tangible throughout, and because her loyalty to them is so clear from the beginning in a way which felt so real, I myself started feeling invested in the band. The murder mystery element was so much fun to try and solve, I loved how everything slowly came together in a way which I was not expecting.

The book showcases the power of a fandom, and how the fans make the bands that they adore so much. But, it also showed how a band can bring people together from all walks of life, and create life-long friendships. The female friendships in this book were wonderful. I adored how the girls had each other’s backs and supported each other throughout when things were looking bleak for their band. Jas in particular was a great friend to Harri, she was probably my favourite character.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend if you’re a fangirl yourself looking for a fun contemporary read with a plot (and a boyband) to easily invest in.

The Boyband Murder Mystery is a book about love but not in the way you might expect.

Everyone at some point in their life has loved something with the intensity of a teenage girl, but not everyone was brave enough to admit it. This book is about those of us who were. Those of us who sought out every picture, cut out every article, examined every tweet, every photo, until we decidedly knew way too much about our object of fannish affection.

For our protagonist, Harri, that affection is all directed towards international boyband Half Light and its lead singer, Frankie Williams who has just been arrested for murder. Harri is naturally distraught, and loves Frankie enough to fight for him, to fight for the band, and investigate the murder in order to clear his name.

But she does not act alone.

Behind the scenes of the often-explored complex love between fan and celebrity is something even greater, and that’s the love between fans.

Harri has a circle of friends who love her. They come from all over the place, Berlin, London, and potentially LA. These girls who in any other time period would have never met, find each other in the comments of one of Frankie William’s Instagram posts.

For me, this is the book’s strongest message.

Being a fan isn’t just fantasising about the different ways you can potentially meet your favourite boyband member (although there is a bit of that) it’s finding a community around you. It’s building a circle of love, friends that will fight for you because they understand your interests and most importantly they understand you.

To be a fan is to love openly and honestly, and to share that love with the people around you. There is a misconception that fandom is a lonely hobby, but it’s a lot more. Behind every fanfiction, every bit of fanart, every video, there is a host of comments from the most supportive and wonderful people on the internet.

The Boyband Murder Mystery isn’t just a novel about a group of fangirls trying to solve a murder but it’s a celebration of fandom at its heart. Of not underestimating friendships forged in twitter replies, or teenage girls with a wealth of knowledge of boybands and all the love in the world.

Brilliantly written, gripping and so true to the experience of throwing yourself into loving a band or a book or a film and building something beautiful around it! I don’t read a lot of contemporary but this was the perfect chaser after recently reading One Of Us Is Lying.

Okay, so me a few years ago? Would be screaming over this book. This book honestly tosses Wattpad meets any fanfic ever and I kinda liked it. I think the one thing that didn’t boost this rating for me was the writing. I’m not sure what it is exactly but there is something immature about the writing - maybe because of the audience it’s directed towards but I felt like I was reading from the perspective of a fifteen year old, not someone at university.

On the other hand, the characters were decently developed and I felt like the plot was thought out well enough. I was pretty cringed out at some parts but this was understandable for a younger YA audience.

Like I said, I would have more feelings and ideas on this book if I was a lot younger but I could appreciate a younger audience enjoying it.
I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I think this book would be a great introduction to the mystery genre. The tropes of a who Dunnit. I enjoyed the portrayal of fandoms and boy band culture. The friendship shown in the book was great.

Wow just wow. The Boyband Murder Mystery has perfectly captured the true heart of what being in a fandom means, and the friendships you make being in one. I had tears in my eyes by the time I'd finished as it's a love letter to any fan who's ever found a sense of belonging within a fandom.

It's a fantastic debut from Ava Eldred, it shows how powerful fans can be and how people come together over a mutual love for a band and artist, but end up finding and discovering so much more. Fans are a bands power and lifeblood. Yes, branding and marketing help, but it's the fans devotion, love, and passion for a band that make or break them. Ava pays homage to that perfectly. with nods to fandom lore and tales which create the foundation of many a boyband fandom.

This is a book that feels like a thank you to one fan to another. And despite the murder that happens it's a beautiful to nod to fandoms.

I loved this book. I crave UKYA particularly contemporary stuff and I love a boyband book so this was always going to appeal. It did not disappoint at all. It really captured that feeling around being in a fandom and the strong bonds between fans who become friends because of that common interest. I loved Harri and Jas and their friendship in particular. I loved that it was older YA and set at uni.

A brilliant debut novel which I really loved. I can’t wait to see what Ava writes next.

A perfect mystery for fangirls everywhere!

I adored this story of friendships formed through a shared love of a band (Half Light, who I wish were real!) and the lengths that fans will go to. So much of Harri and Jas's friendship (along with the others in their gang spread across the country and the globe) is relatable to anyone who has followed a band in the social media age and Ava Eldred really understands what it is to share these bonds, as is evident from the nuanced observations throughout.

The girls devotion to the band leads them into the inner circle as they become more and more determined to prove the innocence of frontman Frankie Williams, who is being investigated in relation to a murder. Through ups and downs they persevere, determined to clear Frankie's name, and perhaps uncovering more than they would have liked along the way.

But although the mystery is great, it's the female friendships that are the very foundation of this book. Robin Stevens meets Rainbow Rowell in this story of fandom, fame and murder.

“I have long believed that loving a boyband brings with it a wealth of transferable skills, but I never imagined solving a murder would be one of them.”

This book follows Harri- uni student and self confessed super fan for boyband, Half Light. When the band’s frontman,Frankie Williams (and Harri’s fave member) is accused of murdering his best friend,Harri is stunned. But, Harri is convinced of his innocence and together with a group of Half Light’s biggest fans sets out to prove it.

It’s told in First POV by Harri-who has a singular passion for Half Light, her life is formed around wanting to work for the band and Ava Eldred does a great job at juxtaposing expectations Harri and her friends have for the band vs. how those expectations can effect their idols.

Overall Eldred’s debut is a fun and original take in the Teen/Mystery Genre-very Nancy Drew meets BTS/One Direction (if Nancy was a super fan).It was an incredibly entertaining and addictive read.

I would definitely recommend to any fans of Murder Mysteries or Contemporary YA/Teen Fiction. Also, a huge thank you to Penguin Random House Children’s UK And Net Galley for this ARC